Tournament Report - Dragon's Maze Prerelease

At Card Kingdom every tournament is 4 rounds of swiss regardless of attendance. For the prerelease they have 72 slots per tournament and run four of them in total. Registration is online two weeks beforehand through a third party, brown paper tickets. They sell out fast.

Anyways I had my Blue/Red/Green deck in hand and sat down for my first round match.

Round 1: Not a single close game. I won game one on 18 life, she won game two on 17 life, I won game three on 20 life. In each game whoever played first got on the front foot an never relinquished it. The most exciting part was this interaction. My opponent played a Scab-Clan Giant. I wasn't worried because I was sandbagging my Progenitor Mimic just in case a big creature came down.

 

What was interesting was a judges ruling we needed. On my turn a copy of Scab-Clan Giant came into play and we chose the target by rolling a die (it happened to be my opponents Scab-Clan Giant). I then decided to pump mine before the fight. But my opponent felt that the random target selection was made on resolution of the ability, not stacking. JUDGE!!!
The judge ruled that the random target is determined when the ability stacks so I was allowed to respond while it was on the stack. Every creature she played for the rest of the game died to my continual stream of Giants. W 2-1 (1-0)

Round 2: This round did not go so well for me. My opponent was playing Boros but fortunately for me was willing to accept all of the trades I offered. He was never able to get his Firemane Avenger battalion trigger. However for the game I drew 13 lands and only 8 spells. I just didn't have the steam to push through a win.

 

Game two was a complete disaster. He played a Firemane Avenger on turn four and I didn't have an immediate answer. This time he had refused to trade early (seeming to have learned from his game 1 mistakes) and had two creatures on the board. I figured I had a little time before the Avenger would be online. I was wrong. On his next turn he dropped a Skyknight Legionnair. Game. Set. Match. L 0-2 (1-1)

Round 3: Again I faced a Boros opponent. But this time I had Ætherize ready. I played some dudes, he played some dudes, we were swinging back and forth. 18-18, 16-14, 14-8. Then on turn 5 I didn't play any dudes and left up 5 lands. He dropped a haste guy and swung for 10. I played Ætherize - game over.

That was all it took to tilt him. Next game he mulliganned, then he mulliganed again (side bar: what is the past tense of mulligan? how do you spell it?). The best part was the anger he expressed at his draw. In particular when the drew to five he did it one card at a time and after the second card he groaned. How can you possibly be mad at just two cards? Yep I'm kinda a douche.  W 2-0 (2-1)

Round 4: My opponent won the roll and elected to go first. He came out of the gates firing with some Boros action. I was able to get my evolve chain online and we were racing. Then he dropped Firemange Avenger - officially my nemesis for this tournament. It's funny whenever I get a Firemane Avenger is never works. When my opponents get them they always get online. I must be doing something wrong. Anyways, that life swing was brutal. I managed to Paralyzing Grasp it and it only got off one trigger. The next turn he Act of Treasoned the Avenger and swung in again. Blerg. I had my Ætherize but nothing else going. The six life he gained would turn out to be the difference in the game.

Game two was super shitty. He stalled on two plains and then finally drew a third plains. He played one spell all game.

Game three - for all the marbles (which at this tournament meant winning 4 packs instead of 1). My opponent comes out of the gates firing and on turn three drops a madcap skillz. Soon I'm down to 5. I played Inspiration at the end of his turn. Which by the way feels amazing, I highly recommend it if you have the means. Fortuantely I drew just the cards I needed, an Ætherize and a Voidwielder. His next attack met wound up sending his whole team back to his hand and now my couple dorks were on the prowl. I'm at 5 he is at 13. He drops two dudes. I play Voidwielder, 5-9. And the exciting bit, I drew my Progenitor Mimic.

 +  

That was all she wrote. W 2-1 (3-1)


Overall: I went 3-1 and was pretty happy. My deck was a blast to play. The bummer was that I never got to use my Mercurial Chemister. Frilled oculus was an absolute beast.